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Church Marketing Blog

Church marketing personnel need to be up-to-date with the latest church marketing strategies and resources to successfully implement the church / parish marketing plan. This church marketing blog enables church marketing personnel to engage in blog discussions relating to the church marketing issues of today. The 'Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed)', 2011, by Bryan Foster, forms the basis for most of these blog posts.

What a most enlightening experience. To be present when so many key people within the Catholic Church all spoke in unison about the need to use the social media as a key component of evangelisation, was something quiet special and unique.I have tried to do the impossible by noting the key points of the congress below!

The congress booklet set the scene with a quote from Pope Benedict XVI’s message to the 45th World Day of Communication. He emphasised the need to be actively involved with the social media and to evangelise through the various means available here.

“The new technologies are not only changing the way we communicate, but communication itself, so much so that it could be said that we are living through a period of vast cultural transformation. This means of spreading information and knowledge is giving birth to a new way of learning and thinking, with unprecedented opportunities for establishing relationships and building fellowship.”

[“I would like then to invite Christians, confidently and with an informed and responsible creativity, to join the network of relationships which the digital era has made possible. This is not simply to satisfy the desire to be present, but because this network is an integral part of human life. The web is contributing to the development of new and more complex intellectual and spiritual horizons, new forms of shared awareness. In this field too we are called to proclaim our faith that Christ is God, the Saviour of humanity and of history, the one in whom all things find their fulfilment (cf. Eph 1:10). The proclamation of the Gospel requires a communication which is at once respectful and sensitive, which stimulates the heart and moves the conscience; one which reflects the example of the risen Jesus when he joined the disciples on the way to Emmaus (cf. Lk 24:13-35). By his approach to them, his dialogue with them, his way of gently drawing forth what was in their heart, they were led gradually to an understanding of the mystery.”]

Scott Stephens – Church needs to re-embrace locality / parish – not bastardised social communities. Go against the trend – don’t go where people are – too much opinion out there. Don’t tone down the lesson – turn it up! Quality matters – most popular blog pieces have depth. Church has to exemplify to a watching world – worship, sacramentality, repentance and social ability. What they will get from no other outlet – the ability to think and reason. ABC is a rare outlet trying for this.

Emma Rossi – ACMA – do go where crowds are… eg in Australia teenagers are on Facebook 13hrs/wk avr. Should be a Cardinal Pell Twitter account being regularly updated. Schools and parishes need also. Catholic Church cannot ignore what is being said about it – response is needed.

Geraldine Doogue – ABC – wary of fads – does Twitter suit us? Energy needed to keep social media fresh – huge challenge, otherwise pull back to what can’t be compromised on… Need to provide media with quality content. (Media senses blood for Church today. Lost interest in politics of Church, curiosity of the Church and even great encyclicals…) Media is inspired by trivia and various formats – not content.

More aborigines in Sydney than NT. Most aborigines in Australia are urban dwellers. Stop romanticising about aborigines living off the land. Only 9% of Aborigines and 16% of other Australian’s believe media is fair to aborigines. Yet 99% of Aborigines and 87% of other Australian’s believe a good relationship between both groups is needed. Honesty needed in media portrayal – good and bad.

What we are seeing now is profound and intrinsic – just as was the invention of the heel, car, printing press. We should be at the vanguard of the of the cultural revolution. How do we humanise the ‘coldness’ of thescreen – screen shows a denial of the body.

Open up a vision of possibilities – the world is exciting, especially for young who are bored with the real small world and desire the global world opened up by the digital age. Parishes are not what they used to be – people are moving around – it is being redefines by the car and technology.

Element of surprise is important eg live radio is better than pre-recorded television. Media is rarely the enemy or either the mate! Must be in the culture but not of it.

Today the audience knows more than the journalist knows. New journalist skills – engagement /curate – share your’s and others’ work, facilitate / build – debates and discussions (start these), crowd sourcing – coop audience into research / contacts / verification, making content out of the process – talking to audience eg what you are doing / how you are doing it etc

Need to draw people out of cyberspace and back into the physical world – to become part of the Eucharisitic community. Become online missionaries – new search of global energy. Cyberspace is a parody of a monastery.

Use Facebook, Twitter and websites to evangelise. More website involvement of my story / thoughts etc

An interactive, content-driven website, with a focus on providing Catholic multimedia resources – also social networking – subscribers have a profile page – an added extra from people’s facebook and twitter pages.

The 'Australian Catholic Media Conference 2012 - an Overview with Links' blog post written by Bryan Foster, author of Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed),
- the paperback and ebook manual for Church communications and marketing
personnel - 304 pages of easy to read and implement summarized
points, which allow for a considerably large number of quality stategies and examples to be
detailed
and
available for church marketing personnel - with copyright
remaining GDPL. Book available from Amazon.com and Createspace.com

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